Q: Why did you decide to write a family memoir, and why did
you choose to focus it around food?

A: Originally I set out to write a cookbook. My daughter was
in preschool; it was her first day. She had [always eaten] healthy food. She
never had a tantrum [but after school that day] she was on the floor—she wanted
ice cream.

I asked what you had for lunch—[she had] white bread,
American cheese, chocolate milk, Oreo cookies. All the kids were running to the
[ice cream] truck. I said, that’s not a snack! A snack is a mini-meal with
protein…

I started teaching cooking classes at school, and gathering
recipes. I started telling the story of each one—with my grandmother, my best
friend. A recipe is more than the ingredients. It was recipes with
mini-vignettes.

I wrote to The New York Times with the ideas. They were
interested in the back story—a 450-lb. dad in the advertising industry. I
started writing that. People were writing to me from all over the world,
telling me about their grandmother, their dad who was overweight…it just hit a
chord….Then I started writing the book.

Q: How did you pick the recipes you include?

A: These were the ones that were so prominent in my life—the
stories I always share. It was hard to narrow it down. I went to the ones with
the strongest memories attached. There’s no way to do a story about my
grandmother without chicken soup!

There are so many recipes where I remember going to
somebody’s house…the book is about inspiring people with [our] own memories and
creating new memories.

Q: How did you first get interested in food?

A: I was sitting on the kitchen counter with my dad, and he
was making a Weight Watchers cake. He said, “What would make the world a better
place? A world without calories!” Food was all my father ever talked about, and
[the same with] my grandmother….I was either wanting food or excited because I
was getting food…

Q: How did you choose the book’s title, and what does it
signify for you?

A: My grandmother had had a stroke and was in the
hospital…my mother said to read her what I [was writing]. It was a story about
growing up with a fat dad and a wonderful grandma. He called himself Fat
Albert. The two of them formed my relationship with food. Growing up with a fat
dad dominated my life.

Q: What do your family members think of the book?

A: My family loves it. My sister thinks it’s beautiful. My
mom wishes there were more pictures of her. My dad said, You’ve come a long
way, baby—that’s a slogan he wrote for Virginia Slims. They are all very
theatrical…

Q: What’s your favorite recipe in the book?

A: It has to be my grandmother’s chicken soup. I make it
three times a week during the winter. If I’m happy I make it. If I’m sad I make
it. It’s full of vegetables. It has sweet potatoes, so it’s orange. It’s almost
stew-ish.

Then there’s flourless blondies—I make them all the time.
And [for Chanukah] it’s potato latkes…

Q: Are you working on another book?

A: I’m always working on a cookbook, compiling more recipes.
It’s loosely formed—I’m trying to figure out if it will be a kids' book or a
grownup book…

Q: You work as a nutrition expert—do you think there are any
helpful changes in nutrition for kids?

A: There is a health shift, but it still involves processed
foods. There is more awareness, but still too much emphasis on processed foods
and not enough on letting kids cook for themselves….

Q: Anything else we should know?

A: About my dad’s advertising career—he was [part of] the
Mad Men era of advertising. It was the products he was marketing that were
making him heavy—Kentucky Fried Chicken, Coca-Cola. He was always looking for
fad diets. He was always looking for someone to market to him—a new pill, a new
diet.

Q: What were some of his best known slogans? You mentioned
Virginia Slims.

A: Coke is it. Once you pop, you can’t stop. This Bud’s for
you. Fly the friendly skies of United…

[Also, I wanted to mention] my grandmother’s recipe cards.
When I went to spend weekends with her, walking into her house made me
[realize] how happy food could make you. [After we moved to New York] she’d
send me recipe cards every week…her recipe cards were a lifeline. They really
connected me to food as love, and connecting to other people.

A house that smells like food…you just feel at ease, like
the aromas are feeding your soul. That’s what my grandmother’s recipes did for
me.

About Me

Author, THE PRESIDENT AND ME: GEORGE WASHINGTON AND THE MAGIC HAT, new children's book (Schiffer, 2016). Co-author, with Marvin Kalb, of HAUNTING LEGACY: VIETNAM AND THE AMERICAN PRESIDENCY FROM FORD TO OBAMA (Brookings Institution Press, 2011).